Sunday, November 05, 2006

"Sense" and "Sensibility"

The Cry For Help (Sense):
I have kept this idea in the back of my mind for a long time: how we can experience God through the senses? & what does that means for us as followers of God? I'm going to start actively reading the scriptures for greater understanding on this. As you read the Bible during your normal devotion time, if you come across God being described with a certain "sense" (touch, taste, smell, sound, and/or sight), will you email me any descriptions of God through the senses you find. Here's an example of what I'm thinking of: In Revelation 1:10, God's voice is describes as rushing water and the sound of trumpets. In Exodus 19:18, God is seen as fire. I'm focusing specifically on God (Trinity), not things that He might ask us to do, or even angels.
Thanks. You're the greatest (unless you scoff me and send me scriptures that have to do with obscure leprosy passages- then you're just second best)!!!

Church and Culture (Sensibility):
I've been reading a book called Total Truth (p. 261-262) I read something today (below) that made me stop to think. What are your thoughts on relationship of Church and Culture? I'll post tomorrow a few of my thoughts on this after I process it a little also.

Pearcey is talking about the history of Evangelicalism (emotive, experiential, non-deep-thinking Christianity) in America and came to this conclusion about why evangelical churches exploded in growth:

“It is a common assumption that, in order to survive, churches must accommodate to the age. But in fact, the opposite is true: In every historical period, the religious groups that grow most rapidly are those that set believers at odds with the surrounding culture. As a general principle, the higher a group’s tension with mainstream society, the higher its growth rate.

“‘Religious organizations are stronger to the degree that they impose significant costs in terms of sacrifice and even stigma upon their members,’ write Finke and Stark. Why? Because religions that demand a lot also give a lot. A frankly supernatural religion may demand more from adherents than a watered-down gospel of ‘reasonable religion’ or social activism. But in turn it gives much greater rewards in terms of doctrinal substance, intense spiritual experience, and a sense of direct access to God. As Finke and Stark comment dryly, people go to church ‘in search of salvation, not social service.’19

19 Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992. pp. 238, 212.

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